With no agreement in place between Legal Aid Alberta (LAA) and the province, the publicly funded society says it will have to stop providing lawyers and services to low-income Albertans as of July 9.
According to a statement from LAA Board Chair Ryan Callioux, negotiations with Alberta’s government stalled as the June 30 contract deadline approached. Rather than renew the existing governance agreement, Justice Minister Mickey Amery issued an ultimatum on June 27, which Callioux says “erodes the independence of this organization and its ability to deliver services.”
“Generally, the Grant Agreement is skewed heavily in favour of the minister, with almost no meaningful obligations on the part of the minister, including any obligation to continue funding,” he said.
The deal put forward by the Ministry of Justice gives the minister authority to adjust funding, restrict the use of funds, and terminate the grant agreement on 30 days written notice. It would also remove the Law Society of Alberta as a party in the agreement, Callioux said.
In a statement, Amery said LAA funding from the Government of Alberta had nearly doubled from $66 million in 2015 to $110 million in 2024.
“Obviously, this funding growth is unsustainable,” he said.
Amery also said that despite the increase in funding, LAA “is not materially expanding the number of clients it serves.”
The government is also now offering to extend the expired funding agreement to ensure the delivery of legal services “while we continue to work with Legal Aid Alberta on the new funding agreement with strengthened transparency and accountability measures,” he said.
“The Law Society of Alberta’s role as regulator of the legal profession remains unchanged, and they will continue to be involved in legal aid board governance via the bylaws of Legal Aid Alberta,” Amery said.
According to publicly available annual reports, LAA issued 41,490 certificates to assign lawyers to cases in 2015-16 and 59,599 in 2023-24. The St. Paul service location is one of the largest recipients of legal aid outside of Edmonton and Calgary, with 3,221 certificates issued last year.
If LAA stops taking on these cases, “it won't take long for the system to see those consequences,” said Danielle Boisvert, past president of the Criminal Trial Lawyers Association.
“The consequences are hard to imagine, if you could fathom a court system in our country simply imploding because it stops functioning completely,” she said.
“The amount of people in family court and child welfare court needing assistance would grow exponentially by the day. So will the amount of people coming into Canada applying for refugee status and not being able to get the assistance of a lawyer to help them navigate that complicated process.”
Four organizations representing Alberta criminal defence lawyers released a joint statement on Wednesday saying they were “shocked and appalled” by the news of the cancellation of the signing of the LAA governance agreement and the terms of the government's ultimatum.
“It is a central principle of fundamental justice that the person prosecuting an individual must be separate and independent from the person conducting their defence. On the terms of the government's last-minute ultimatum, this fundamental principle would be destroyed,” the statement says.
The organizations warned that a disruption of legal aid services “will inevitably trigger a complete breakdown of an already overtaxed and under-resourced system.”
A representative of LAA said the society is not available for interviews, citing ongoing uncertainty.
